"Because I can't risk getting drunk and doing something I shouldn't."

His jet-black eyes settled on Yoonseul. She found herself unable to move under the weight of his gaze.

The atmosphere shifted in an instant. Flustered by the strange tension that had sprung up between them, Yoonseul wondered what she was supposed to do.

He had always smiled at her so warmly, speaking with such easy affection. Seeing that sudden intensity in his eyes left her utterly at a loss.

Especially because she had a fairly good idea what kind of mistake he meant.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Yoonseul hesitated before finally managing to speak.

"What could possibly happen between us?"

She made it sound as though the very idea was ridiculous, drawing a firm line between them while pretending it was nothing worth discussing.

"Na Yoonseul."

"...Huh?"

"What exactly are we to each other?"

He had turned her own words back on her.

For a moment, Yoonseul's mind went completely blank.

What were they to each other?

They were practically family. He was like an older brother to her. Like a mother and father, too. Someone who had always been endlessly gentle and caring.

She had never once thought of their relationship as anything more than that, nor had she ever imagined feeling anything different toward him.

It was as natural as breathing. Something she had never even questioned.

"You and I... we're practically brother and sister. You carried me around on your back and practically raised me, remember?"

"Brother and sister, huh."

Wooyoung rolled the words around on his tongue.

Suddenly, they left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Of course, that was how things had been a dozen or so years ago. She had been as precious and adorable to him as a real little sister. There was no denying that.

But now?

The fact that her firm declaration bothered him suggested that his feelings might have changed.

He still found her adorable whenever he looked at her. He still felt that same tenderness, that familiar ache in his chest.

But now, it seemed, something else had become tangled up in those feelings.

"This is trouble," he murmured.

Yoonseul, who had been stealing glances at him, finally found the awkward silence unbearable.

"What's trouble?"

"I keep seeing Na Yoonseul as a woman instead of a little sister."

"..."

A woman.

A woman.

A woman.

She knew perfectly well what the word meant.

So why had her heart suddenly started pounding?

She had only had one glass of alcohol, yet her face felt as though it were burning.

Gulp.

Swallowing hard, Yoonseul searched desperately for somewhere else to look. Her gaze landed on the shellfish in front of her.

The shells had opened, and their contents were bubbling away over the heat.

She seized the opportunity to change the subject.

"Well, of course I'm a woman. What else would I be, a man? Anyway, doesn't this look like it's burning?"

Unable to bear the awkwardness another second, she hurriedly reached toward the grill and grabbed one of the shells.

"Ah! Hot!"

She jerked her hand away in a panic, startled by the searing heat.

Tsk.

Wooyoung clicked his tongue, his expression turning concerned as he watched her.

Yoonseul's face was bright red, and she was pressing her fingers against her earlobe.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. It's nothing."

When Wooyoung reached toward her, she nodded vigorously.

But the concern on his face didn't disappear.

"Let me see. Give me your hand."

"I told you I'm fine."

"Haah."

Honestly.

He let out a deep sigh and glanced around before picking up the soju bottle beside him and handing it to her.

A thin layer of frost coated the bottle, leaving it icy cold. He figured holding it might offer her some relief.

"Here. Hold this, at least. Come on."

At his urging, Yoonseul took it almost without thinking.

The tip of her index finger stung a little, but fortunately, she didn't seem to have burned herself as badly as she'd feared.

What a ridiculous fuss she'd made.

Then her eyes fell on the bottle in her hand.

After a moment's hesitation, she twisted off the cap.

"What are you doing?"

Wooyoung stared at her sudden movement.

"Can't I just have a little?"

"Seul."

He spoke her name gently.

At this point, Yoonseul thought getting drunk might be preferable to enduring another moment of this unbearable awkwardness.

"I'm already in a bad mood. There's no reason I shouldn't drink. Just let me."

"That's exactly when you shouldn't be drinking."

"Then why did we even come here if we're not going to drink? Besides, isn't that why you ordered this?"

Well, yes.

It was already late to drive all the way back to Seoul. And since they had come this far, Wooyoung had been planning to stay overnight anyway.

There was something else he wanted to show her, after all.

Even when he had been in America, he had occasionally imagined what it would be like to share a drink with her once she had grown up.

But now that the alcohol was sitting on the table, he found himself wondering whether letting Na Yoonseul drink was really such a good idea.

For some reason, the thought that he shouldn't kept nagging at him.

"If you drink that, I'm going to drink too. And then we'll have to stay the night here. Are you okay with that?"

Wooyoung watched her steadily as he asked.

A look of dismay spread across her face, the bottle still clutched in her hand.

Every time she became flustered and uncomfortable like that, something about it got under his skin.

Whew.

Drawing a long breath, Wooyoung raised his hand and called over an employee.

"One more bottle of soju, please."

"Of course! Another bottle coming right up!"

The employee called back cheerfully and soon brought another bottle to the table.

Without a word, Wooyoung unscrewed the cap.

He placed one glass in front of Yoonseul and another in front of himself, then filled them both.

"..."

Bewildered by his sudden change of heart, Yoonseul looked from her glass to Wooyoung and back again.

Meanwhile, Wooyoung picked up his glass and emptied it in one gulp.

Then he poured himself another.

By the time he had downed three glasses in quick succession, Yoonseul could do nothing but stare at him.

"You said you wanted to drink."

"..."

"Then let's have a proper drink together tonight."

There was something dangerously alluring about his voice.

When Yoonseul saw the corners of his mouth lift into a faint smile, she could feel her palms growing damp with sweat.

******

"Hic."

Yoonseul hiccupped.

When Wooyoung had challenged her to drink with him, she had boldly accepted, trading one round after another.

Only a short while ago, she had thought she might never see him again.

And now, here she was, sitting across from Go Wooyoung and drinking with him.

The whole thing felt almost impossible to believe.

Yoonseul raised her eyes to meet his.

Unlike her, who was already feeling rather tipsy, Wooyoung looked perfectly composed.

Two empty bottles were sitting beside him.

He watched her with a smile before picking up the bottle and giving it a light shake.

"Want some more?"

"Yeah. Hic."

Even as she answered, she kept hiccupping.

Wooyoung found the sight thoroughly adorable.

Earlier, her face had been red from crying. Now it was the alcohol that had brought color to her cheeks, turning her usually rice-cake-pale complexion a rosy pink.

"All right. Have some more, then."

Wooyoung refilled her glass.

She had obediently eaten every piece of shellfish he'd cut up for her, but apparently she was finally getting full.

Now she was drinking nothing but soju and water.

Resting his chin on one hand, Wooyoung watched her intently.

"By the way, how did you end up coming today? Did you already know?"

It suddenly occurred to Yoonseul that she still hadn't asked why he'd shown up at the wedding.

Everything had been so chaotic earlier that the question hadn't even crossed her mind.

"Of course I knew. Is there anything Go Wooyoung doesn't know about Na Yoonseul?"

He answered with a confident smile.

Yoonseul slowly lifted her heavy eyelids and met his gaze.

"Let's just call it an employee benefit."

"A benefit?"

"Yeah. One of our company's perks."

What a ridiculous thing to say.

As if any company offered benefits like that.

Yoonseul let out an incredulous little laugh.

"Still, you got to see those shameless jerks get what was coming to them. You enjoyed that part, didn't you? Felt pretty satisfying, right?"

Well, he had a point.

The look on Jeong Mirae's face when she'd seen Yoonseul and flown into a rage had certainly been something.

Yoonseul was grinning to herself at the memory when Wooyoung's voice reached her ears.

"Na Yoonseul really hasn't changed a bit."

She looked up, wondering what he meant.

He was gazing straight at her.

"Still as cute as ever."

"..."

"Still as pretty as ever."

"Stop teasing me. You used to make fun of me all the time, saying I was ugly."

Yoonseul shot him a reproachful look.

You're really ugly, you know that?

Whenever she cried, Wooyoung had teased her with those words.

It didn't matter whether she'd been scolded by Grandma, had a miserable day at school, or was upset because the other children wouldn't play with her.

Somehow, Wooyoung had always known.

Every single time, he had appeared and comforted her.

"That was because you cried so much. I only said it to make you stop crying. You still remember that?"

"I remember everything."

In truth, even when Wooyoung had returned to Korea, there had been a part of him that wondered.

What if she didn't remember him?

He had been older, so naturally he remembered everything. But Na Yoonseul had been so young back then.

Yet the moment he'd seen the way she looked at him in the hotel lounge, he'd known.

She remembered him, too.

"How much do you remember?"

At his question, Yoonseul sank into thought.

How much?

She couldn't possibly tell him everything, but she remembered most of the time they had spent together.

Those memories were what had kept her going when she'd been alone.

She had returned to them so often, turning them over and over in her mind, that they were practically worn to shreds.

"What about you? Do you remember?"

During all those years I spent waiting for him, did Go Wooyoung ever think about me?

It was something she had always wanted to know.

At her question, Wooyoung's eyes curved into a beautiful smile.

There seemed to be something deeper in his gaze, too.

When she met those darkened eyes, her heart began to pound.

"Yeah."

He answered without a moment's hesitation.

"I've never, not even once..."

He paused to take a breath, a smile spreading across his lips.

"...forgotten Na Yoonseul."

Chapter 13

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